Renee Zellweger learned a lot from her Hollywood hiatus

Renee Zellweger "learned a lot" by taking a break from Hollywood.

The 47-year-old star took a four-year from acting in 2010 after appearing in 'My Own Love Song' but now she is back as the titular character in 'Bridget Jones's Baby' and has revealed that her break from the big screen actually helped her develop as a "storyteller".

Speaking on UK programme 'The Jonathan Ross Show' - in an episode that will air on Saturday night (10.09.16) - she said: "I learned a lot (on my break). And I think I grew a lot and I think it's important if you're in this business, if you want to be a storyteller, you have to have the experiences to draw from and I needed to go ahead and have a little life that didn't have something to do with a character that I was playing or researching, you know."

Talking about her decision to go on hiatus from Hollywood, the 'Chicago' actress admitted that she felt she needed to "keep some promises" she had made to herself and "shift her focus".

She said: "I just wanted to shift my focus a little bit and keep some promises that I had made to myself a long time ago. There are some things that I wanted to learn and see if I had aptitude for. I wanted to go back to school I wanted to do things that you can't really make time for when you're in the cycle of making films ... I had to just commit to breaking that cycle for a little bit so that I could grow as a person. I was boring myself, you know. I'm really lucky with the people that I work with, we are like minded but it was time."

Despite being main star of the 'Bridget Jones' franchise and an Oscar winner, Renee managed to enjoy her break from the limelight without being hassled by the public.

She revealed: "When you go away and you're out of people's consciousness, they stop noticing you. It's fantastic, you order your coffee and you get a coffee and leave. It's really nice because I'd meet people authentically, you'd have authentic conversations on the street and I enjoyed that, that's something that I had missed."